Recall yesterday: Ben
Bernanke made some comments about QE3 being a possibility and
stocks rallied initially. By the end of the day, a lot of that
had fizzled, especially as the realization sunk in that there was
no debt deal.

Then after that, it was all Bernanke and debt talk headlines.
Unlike yesterday, Bernanke made more clear that QE3 was not in
the immediate offing, and stocks faded. Oil really got hammered
on the news.

And then on the debt ceiling front, there wasn't really
anything, except there was this weird brief flurry of hope of a
deal based on wire reports that mostly turned out to be total
fiction. Talks are ongoing. Tim
Geithner, really sounded the alarm, when he said
that "we're running out of time."

And that was that, by the end of the day, it was fairly
negative, especially on the tech front. A few other corporate
notables: News
Corp. got smashed on news that the FBI is opening a
preliminary investigation into allegations that it may have
hacked the phones of 9.11 victims. Google is
coming out with earnings, there's talk of a RIMM competitor to
Apple
TV. Netflix,
which has defied gravity, finally had a rough day.